Above the Roar

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Forerunners to the skateboard date back to the early 1900s, when European and American preteens made scooters by attaching metal rollerskate wheels to wooden planks and vegetable crates. Skateboarding as it exists today, however, was developed and popularized by surfers in the late '50s and early 1960s. Roller Derby introduced the first commercially-made skateboard in 1959: it measured 24" x 4", had clay-composition wheels spinning on ball-bearings, and sold for just under $10.00. As surfing'...